Home > Articles > Home & Office Computing > Microsoft Applications

This chapter is from the book

This chapter is from the book

Inserting Images from the Internet

In the prehistoric days of early computing, digital artwork was quite rudimentary, jaggedy-edged and limited in color scope. It often looked like a caveman drew it rather than a highly qualified computer programmer. As time progressed, predrawn clip art began to proliferate among software manufacturers as clip art collections, allowing users to easily illustrate their files with cartoony-like graphics. The collections themselves used to install with software programs, such as Microsoft Word, and included a small variety of themes related to business, desktop publishing, and computer technologies. Eventually, full-blown photographic images—also called stock photography—made their way into clip art collections, too.

Today, most of the image collections offered with software programs are available online. Rather than clog up your computer’s hard drive with lots of images you might not ever use, you can access pictures on the Web instead and find just the right ones you want. With an Internet connection, you can peruse vast libraries of pictures, from drawings and illustrations to photographs and video clips.

You need an online connection and a Microsoft account to tap into the Office.com site and search for artwork. The Insert Pictures feature, shown in Figure 15.2, lets you search for pictures in the following sources:

Figure 15.2

FIGURE 15.2 The new Insert Pictures box lets you search for online pictures from several sources.

  • Office.com Search through Microsoft’s own collection of royalty-free pictures.
  • Bing Image Search Use this option to search for pictures on the Web using Microsoft’s Bing search engine.
  • SkyDrive If you store pictures on your cloud account, you can use this option to look for picture files among your SkyDrive content.

That’s not all: If you use a Flickr photo sharing account, you can add it to the mix and search for digital pictures from it as well.

Thumbnails are miniatures of images. Rather than take up a lot of space with full-size images, most photo displays used in galleries, photo viewers, and search engines show smaller versions of the images. The term thumbnail also applies to files you view using Windows Explorer. For example, you can choose to view folder contents as thumbnails. This sort of gives you a glance at what the files contain without the inconvenience of a full-on screen-hogging view.

Using Pictures from Office.com

To insert a picture from Microsoft’s online collection, follow these steps:

  1. Click the Insert tab.
  2. Click Online Pictures to open the Insert Pictures tool (see Figure 15.2).
  3. Click in the Office.com Clip Art search field and type in a keyword or words for the type of picture you’re looking for.
  4. Press Enter or click the Search icon.
  5. A search results page lists any matches, similar to Figure 15.3. Use the scrollbar to look through the thumbnails.
    Figure 15.3

    FIGURE 15.3 Look through the search results to find the picture you want to use.

  6. When you find one you want, click it. If you find more than one, press and hold the Ctrl key while clicking each image.
  7. To download the picture, click Insert.

When the download is complete, Word inserts the picture into your document, much like what you see in Figure 15.4, and displays a new Format tab for working with the image. You might need to resize the picture right away to make it fit. More often than not, you’ll find yourself having to do this with any artwork you bring into Word. Drag a picture’s corner selection handle to resize the image. To move the picture around in the document, click and drag it.

Figure 15.4

FIGURE 15.4Word downloads the picture and inserts it for you. In this example, I inserted a clip art illustration.

If your initial search doesn’t result in any good matches on Office.com, try typing in another keyword or phrase in the Search box. Finding the right picture for an occasion might take a few tries. If you give up on searching, click the Back to Sites link in the upper-left corner to return to the main Insert Pictures screen and try another source.

Searching for Pictures Using Bing

Now let’s try searching for pictures using the Bing Image Search feature. As you might or might not know, the Bing search engine is part of Microsoft’s world domination plan, so all the Microsoft Office programs point you toward Bing any time you want to conduct a web search from within the programs.

To search the Web for pictures using Bing, follow these steps:

  1. Click the Insert tab.
  2. Click Online Pictures.
  3. Click in the Bing Image Search field and type in a keyword or words for the type of picture you’re looking for, as shown in Figure 15.5.
    Figure 15.5

    FIGURE 15.5 This time, let’s search with Bing.

  4. Press Enter or click the Search icon.
  5. A search results page lists any matches, similar to what you see in Figure 15.6.
    Figure 15.6

    FIGURE 15.6 The results are images gathered from all over the Web that match your search criteria.

    Use the scrollbar to look through the thumbnails. Notice this time there’s a big warning in the box about copyright material. Unlike the Office.com site, the items you search for using Bing are not necessarily royalty-free.

  6. When you find a picture, click it to view its details, as well as a link to its web address you can use to learn more about the image.
  7. Click Insert.

Searching for Pictures on SkyDrive

SkyDrive is Microsoft’s file-hosting service, and if you store your photos on your cloud account with Microsoft, you can insert pictures from SkyDrive and place them in your documents.

To search your SkyDrive account for pictures, follow these steps:

  1. Click the Insert tab.
  2. Click Online Pictures.
  3. Click the Browse link under the SkyDrive option (see Figure 15.7).
    Figure 15.7

    FIGURE 15.7 Now let’s try searching your SkyDrive storage for pictures.

  4. Open the folder containing your pictures and click the picture you want to insert (see Figure 15.8).
    Figure 15.8

    FIGURE 15.8 I’m looking for a frog picture, and I think this is the one.

  5. Click Insert.

As soon as you click the Insert button, Word downloads the picture and inserts it into your document. You will probably need to resize the picture to fit; just drag a corner selection handle, pointed out in Figure 15.9, to resize the image.

Figure 15.9

FIGURE 15.9 It’s a tree frog resting on a zinnia flower leaf, if you must know.

If you have a Flickr account, click the Flickr icon at the bottom of the Insert Pictures window and follow the instructions to connect your account. If you don’t have a Flickr account, you can use the link to make one.

InformIT Promotional Mailings & Special Offers

I would like to receive exclusive offers and hear about products from InformIT and its family of brands. I can unsubscribe at any time.

Overview


Pearson Education, Inc., 221 River Street, Hoboken, New Jersey 07030, (Pearson) presents this site to provide information about products and services that can be purchased through this site.

This privacy notice provides an overview of our commitment to privacy and describes how we collect, protect, use and share personal information collected through this site. Please note that other Pearson websites and online products and services have their own separate privacy policies.

Collection and Use of Information


To conduct business and deliver products and services, Pearson collects and uses personal information in several ways in connection with this site, including:

Questions and Inquiries

For inquiries and questions, we collect the inquiry or question, together with name, contact details (email address, phone number and mailing address) and any other additional information voluntarily submitted to us through a Contact Us form or an email. We use this information to address the inquiry and respond to the question.

Online Store

For orders and purchases placed through our online store on this site, we collect order details, name, institution name and address (if applicable), email address, phone number, shipping and billing addresses, credit/debit card information, shipping options and any instructions. We use this information to complete transactions, fulfill orders, communicate with individuals placing orders or visiting the online store, and for related purposes.

Surveys

Pearson may offer opportunities to provide feedback or participate in surveys, including surveys evaluating Pearson products, services or sites. Participation is voluntary. Pearson collects information requested in the survey questions and uses the information to evaluate, support, maintain and improve products, services or sites, develop new products and services, conduct educational research and for other purposes specified in the survey.

Contests and Drawings

Occasionally, we may sponsor a contest or drawing. Participation is optional. Pearson collects name, contact information and other information specified on the entry form for the contest or drawing to conduct the contest or drawing. Pearson may collect additional personal information from the winners of a contest or drawing in order to award the prize and for tax reporting purposes, as required by law.

Newsletters

If you have elected to receive email newsletters or promotional mailings and special offers but want to unsubscribe, simply email information@informit.com.

Service Announcements

On rare occasions it is necessary to send out a strictly service related announcement. For instance, if our service is temporarily suspended for maintenance we might send users an email. Generally, users may not opt-out of these communications, though they can deactivate their account information. However, these communications are not promotional in nature.

Customer Service

We communicate with users on a regular basis to provide requested services and in regard to issues relating to their account we reply via email or phone in accordance with the users' wishes when a user submits their information through our Contact Us form.

Other Collection and Use of Information


Application and System Logs

Pearson automatically collects log data to help ensure the delivery, availability and security of this site. Log data may include technical information about how a user or visitor connected to this site, such as browser type, type of computer/device, operating system, internet service provider and IP address. We use this information for support purposes and to monitor the health of the site, identify problems, improve service, detect unauthorized access and fraudulent activity, prevent and respond to security incidents and appropriately scale computing resources.

Web Analytics

Pearson may use third party web trend analytical services, including Google Analytics, to collect visitor information, such as IP addresses, browser types, referring pages, pages visited and time spent on a particular site. While these analytical services collect and report information on an anonymous basis, they may use cookies to gather web trend information. The information gathered may enable Pearson (but not the third party web trend services) to link information with application and system log data. Pearson uses this information for system administration and to identify problems, improve service, detect unauthorized access and fraudulent activity, prevent and respond to security incidents, appropriately scale computing resources and otherwise support and deliver this site and its services.

Cookies and Related Technologies

This site uses cookies and similar technologies to personalize content, measure traffic patterns, control security, track use and access of information on this site, and provide interest-based messages and advertising. Users can manage and block the use of cookies through their browser. Disabling or blocking certain cookies may limit the functionality of this site.

Do Not Track

This site currently does not respond to Do Not Track signals.

Security


Pearson uses appropriate physical, administrative and technical security measures to protect personal information from unauthorized access, use and disclosure.

Children


This site is not directed to children under the age of 13.

Marketing


Pearson may send or direct marketing communications to users, provided that

  • Pearson will not use personal information collected or processed as a K-12 school service provider for the purpose of directed or targeted advertising.
  • Such marketing is consistent with applicable law and Pearson's legal obligations.
  • Pearson will not knowingly direct or send marketing communications to an individual who has expressed a preference not to receive marketing.
  • Where required by applicable law, express or implied consent to marketing exists and has not been withdrawn.

Pearson may provide personal information to a third party service provider on a restricted basis to provide marketing solely on behalf of Pearson or an affiliate or customer for whom Pearson is a service provider. Marketing preferences may be changed at any time.

Correcting/Updating Personal Information


If a user's personally identifiable information changes (such as your postal address or email address), we provide a way to correct or update that user's personal data provided to us. This can be done on the Account page. If a user no longer desires our service and desires to delete his or her account, please contact us at customer-service@informit.com and we will process the deletion of a user's account.

Choice/Opt-out


Users can always make an informed choice as to whether they should proceed with certain services offered by InformIT. If you choose to remove yourself from our mailing list(s) simply visit the following page and uncheck any communication you no longer want to receive: www.informit.com/u.aspx.

Sale of Personal Information


Pearson does not rent or sell personal information in exchange for any payment of money.

While Pearson does not sell personal information, as defined in Nevada law, Nevada residents may email a request for no sale of their personal information to NevadaDesignatedRequest@pearson.com.

Supplemental Privacy Statement for California Residents


California residents should read our Supplemental privacy statement for California residents in conjunction with this Privacy Notice. The Supplemental privacy statement for California residents explains Pearson's commitment to comply with California law and applies to personal information of California residents collected in connection with this site and the Services.

Sharing and Disclosure


Pearson may disclose personal information, as follows:

  • As required by law.
  • With the consent of the individual (or their parent, if the individual is a minor)
  • In response to a subpoena, court order or legal process, to the extent permitted or required by law
  • To protect the security and safety of individuals, data, assets and systems, consistent with applicable law
  • In connection the sale, joint venture or other transfer of some or all of its company or assets, subject to the provisions of this Privacy Notice
  • To investigate or address actual or suspected fraud or other illegal activities
  • To exercise its legal rights, including enforcement of the Terms of Use for this site or another contract
  • To affiliated Pearson companies and other companies and organizations who perform work for Pearson and are obligated to protect the privacy of personal information consistent with this Privacy Notice
  • To a school, organization, company or government agency, where Pearson collects or processes the personal information in a school setting or on behalf of such organization, company or government agency.

Links


This web site contains links to other sites. Please be aware that we are not responsible for the privacy practices of such other sites. We encourage our users to be aware when they leave our site and to read the privacy statements of each and every web site that collects Personal Information. This privacy statement applies solely to information collected by this web site.

Requests and Contact


Please contact us about this Privacy Notice or if you have any requests or questions relating to the privacy of your personal information.

Changes to this Privacy Notice


We may revise this Privacy Notice through an updated posting. We will identify the effective date of the revision in the posting. Often, updates are made to provide greater clarity or to comply with changes in regulatory requirements. If the updates involve material changes to the collection, protection, use or disclosure of Personal Information, Pearson will provide notice of the change through a conspicuous notice on this site or other appropriate way. Continued use of the site after the effective date of a posted revision evidences acceptance. Please contact us if you have questions or concerns about the Privacy Notice or any objection to any revisions.

Last Update: November 17, 2020